Nonwrinkle collar protector for garment hangers



April 26, 1949. R. ZIMMERMAN NONWRINKLE COLLAR PROTECTOR FOR GARMENT HANGERS Filed March 9, 1948 JNI EN TO RA: Z/MMERMA/V A 7 TOR/V15 Y 5 Patented Apr. 26, 1949 N ONWRINKLE COLLAR PROTECTOR FOR GARMENT HANGERS Rae Zimmerman, Santa Ana, Calif.

Application March 9, 1948, Serial No. 13,788

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to improvements in clothes hangers and more particularly in a hanger attachement for holding garment collars in shape and preventing wrinkling or folding of the collar of a garment while supported on a conventional clothes hanger.

Conventional clothes hangers are made of wire, wood or similar material and have a wire hook attached to the cross bar or garment shoulder supporting portion of the hanger by a wire stem or shank which extends through the collar of a garment supported on the hanger.

This wire stem or hook shank does not provide suiiicient support for the garment collar with the result that the collar folds over or wrinkles within a short time after the garment has been placed on the hanger. Some attempts have been made to correct this condition but these prior efforts have required special hanger construction or a complicated attachment structure that is difficult and expensive to manufacture. It is well known that the wide spread use of garment hangers, especially by laundries and dry cleaning establishments is largely because of the extremely low cost of the hangers conventionally used. Hanger manufactures have spent time, effort and large sums of money in reducing the cost of such hangers and the condtion of the trade is' such that variations of small fractions of a cent in the price per unit are of major importance. It has been found that regardless of the merits of an improvement in these articles such an improvement cannot be placed on the market if it increases the cost of each hanger more than a very small fraction of a cent.

It is therefore among the objects of the present invention to provide an attachment for a conventional garment hanger which attachment, when installed on a hanger, will effectively prevent the collar of a garment supported on such hanger from folding or wrinkling and which may be manufactured so economically that it does not appreciably increase the cost of the hanger, and which is adapted, if desired, to carry advertising matter to defray even the slight increase in cost required, which is easy to install on a conventional garment hanger either at the factory or by the user, and which is neat and attractive in appearance.

Other objects and advantages will become 'ap-- ment hanger with a collar protecting attachment illustrative of the invention operatively applied thereto;

Figure 2 is an elevation, on a somewhat enlarged scale, of the attachment illustrated in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an end elevation of the garment hanger and attachment assembly illustrated in Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a transverse cross section of the attachment taken substantially on the line 4-4 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a diagrammatic view of a garment supported on a hanger provided with the improved attachment, showing the manner in which the garment collar is protected by the attachment;

Figure 6 is an elevation of a hanger and attachment assembly, such as illustrated in Figure 1, but showing a modified manner of securing the attachment to the hanger; and

Figure '7 is an elevation of a different form of conventional garment hanger with an attachment illustrative of the invention operatively applied thereto.

With continued reference to the drawing, and particularly to Figures 1 to 5 inclusive, the conventional garment hanger, generally indicated at H), is formed of wire and has a cross bar or garment shoulder supporting portion including the two inclined wire lengths II and the straight length or brace l2 extending between the outer ends of the lengths l I. A hook I3 is connected to the upper lengths l l at their adjoining ends by a twisted shank M.

The collar protecting attachment, generally indicated at I5, is a body of stiff sheet material, preferably cardboard although other materials such as wood, plastic, metal, etc., may be used if desired.

The body l5 comprises a generally rectangular, base portion l6 having a straight longitudinal edge l1 and end edges l8 substantially perpendicular to edge l1, and an extension IS on the side of base portion l6 opposite the longitudinal edge H. The extension I9 has an arcuately curved outer edge 20 the ends of which are reversely curved as illustrated at 2|.

Body I5 is provided at or near its center with .an aperture 22 and a groove 23 in one face thereof extending from the aperture to the outer edge of extension 19 substantially perpendicular to edge H.

To assemble the attachment with the hanger, hook I3 is inserted through aperture 22 and moved therethrough until the aperture surrounds the end of hook shank I4 connected to wire lengths H and the shank lies' substantially in groove 23, as illustrated in Figure 3. The attachment then overlies the hanger cross bar and hook shank at the junction of the shank and cross bar.

The body l5 has a width to fit Within a garment collar and a height to support such collar against folding or wrinkling, as illustrated in Figure 5.

In the'rnodification shown in Figure 6 the attachment body I5 is secured to a hanger having a cross bar 25 of wood or other penetrable material, by fasteners 26 such as tacks, brads or screws and in this case the body has no shankreceiving groove or aperture.

In the construction shown in Figure 7 the at tachment body 15 is also without groove or aperture and is secured to the hanger by loops or staples 21 which penetrate the sheet material body I5 and surround the wire lengths II of the hanger.

While a specific embodiment of a clothes hanger has been disclosed in the foregoing description, it' will be understood that various modifications within the spirit of the invention may occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore it is intended that no limitations be placed on the invention exand having a groove formed in one face extending from said aperture to the outer edge of said extensionto receive the hook shank of a garment hanger to which said attachment is applied.

RAE ZIMMERMAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PAT Num am pate 2,111,301 H -Christensen et a1. Aug, 29, 1939 2,348,523 Chaikin May 9, 194;

2,4 4, 5 an J n 29.1 9 

